There is an ongoing debate in the marine world arguing that cephalopods use their camouflage to communicate with each other. A cephalopods camouflage is made up of a bunch of tiny chromatophores in their skin. Several scientists think that the communication is plausible, while others stick to the no-fun result that there is not a bit of proof.
In order to understand if cephalopods use their chromatophores to communicate, it might be a good idea to know what a cephalopod is. A cephalopod is in the class of mollusks that scientists classify octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish. They can change color faster than a chameleon or a salamander or many kinds of fish. They can also change texture and body shape, and, and if those camouflage techniques don't work, they can still "disappear" in a cloud of ink, which they use as a smoke-screen. They're jet powered, they suck in a lot of water and spit it out really hard to make them move faster. Cephalopods have inspired legends and stories throughout history and are thought to be the most intelligent of invertebrates. They have eyes and other senses that are awesome and are way better than people and most animals.
A better way to understand if they communicate using their chromatophores, it might be best to know exactly what the chromatophores are and what they can do. Camouflage is the most important defense action in cephalopods. The cephalopod chromatophore system has captivated people since squid and octopus and cuttlefish were discovered. Chromatophores are specific cells which can contain or produce pigment, or reflect light in a precise way to create a certain desired color. The system is the only known example of skin reflectance under direct neural control, as opposed to the...
... middle of paper ...
... the arm raise to mean something more complicated or maybe even different from whatever stripe means by itself,” says Jennifer Mather. Mather is a psychologist who studies cephalopod behavior and teaches at the University of Lethbridge in Lethbridge, Alberta. , Her thinking this is intriguing, but it remains unexplored and still unproven. Besides camouflage, I think that cephalopods use the chromataphores for communication. There are documentaries about the Humboldt Squid where they were more aggressive toward humans in one isolated area than they were everywhere else. In the documentary it is seen that they flash bright red to white not only to show panic, but they show lower down toward more squids that when one squid was showing panic, the rest must have seen it as a sign danger was ahead. I’m not a scientist, but I’m almost positive that is communicating.
In the lab the isopods were observed in a way to where behavior and structures could be properly recorded. The isopods were revealed to two dissimilar scenarios, normal temperature water vs. warm temperature water, to calculate which environment was most preferred. In each distinct scenario ten isopods were placed ten a choice chamber, one side being normal temperature (26.7celsius) and the other being warm temperature (43.3 celsius) , and observed for a total of ten minutes with thirty second intervals which was when we recorded our observations. After observations, it was seen that normal conditions was the most preferred environment by the isopods. In the scenario the Isopods exhibited taxis behavior, which is behavior caused by factors such as light, temperature, water and such. Nothing physical, but rather environmental.
This research focuses on Gambierdiscus toxicus which is an armored, marine, benthic species in the phylum Dinoflagellata. It has an epitheca and a hypotheca, that is very similar in size, compressed anterio-posteriorly. The theca is covered with numerous deep and dense pores which are very thick. This species is autotrophic creating energy via several golden-brown chloroplasts (Hackett et al 2004), but is also heterotrophic and hence is referred to as mixotrophic. It has a ventrally – oriented crescent shaped nucleus. (Adachi & Fukuyo 1979). It usually inhabits warmer waters such as bay, mediterranian, tropical/sub – tropical in North/Central America (Shiumuzu et al 1982; Loeblich & Indelicato 1986), Asia/Pacific (Holmes & Tao 2002; Lu & Hodgkiss 2004) and has recently been identified in the Mediterranean (Aligizaki & Nikolaidis 2008). These authors identified the organisms to genus level, at best of their effort, so may have been one of the less common members of its genus although it is unlikely.
Oxygen breathing lungs are a universal trait of class reptilia. As such, it would have been necessary for the Plesiosauroid - a marine reptile, to return to the ocean surface to inhale air. Oxygen expenditure in reptiles is proportional to strenuosity of locomotion (Frappell, Schultz & Christian, 2002). Therefore the Plesiosauroid must have held physiological traits that enabled the species to avoid oxygen deficit while hunting deep-sea dwelling prey. This essay will outline the hypothesised respiratory, circulatory, pulmonary and sensory attributes of the Plesiosauroid as they relate to diving. These hypotheses will be supported by investigating the physiological adaptations of the Plesiosaur’s biological analogues, and the prospect of similar adaptations in the former will be speculated upon.
The crustacean moult cycle is initiated when the Y-organ in the head secretes the hormone Ecdysone (E) into the circulatory system[3,4,5]; the Y-organ is the primary source of E[5]. Upon contact with the haemolymph (a combination of blood and tissue fluid) within the circulatory system E is converted to its active form, 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E), by a P450 enzyme[4]. This causes the epidermal cells to secrete moulting fluid, which contains a mixture of enzymes such as proteases and chitinases. The moulting fluid degrades the exo- and endocuticle, and the digested cuticle is reabsorbed to create new cuticle; moult fluid also has a role in initiating the moult. The degraded cuticle is replaced by water or air so that the animal can swell in order to lose the shell. During the passive phase of the moult cycle, the shell splits along the break point caused by the decalcification of the shell, in the crab this is along the epimeral lines. Once the shell has split, the animal wiggles side-to-side to free itself from i...
“Their habitat lies on the Eastern side of the Olympic mountain range, adjacent to Hood Canal.”. Because of the moistness of the rainforest and their specialized skin, they are able to keep from becoming desiccated for long periods of time, but if they get the chance they would prefer resting in pooled water. The tree octopus explores the world by both touch and sight. Tree octopuses have eyesight comparable to human. Besides the fact that it allows them to see their prey and environment around them, it helps in inter-octopus relations. Even though they are not social like us, they show each other their emotions through their ability to change the color of their skin: red indicates anger, white fear, while they normally maintain a mottled brown tone to blend in with the background. (Lyle
For example, zombie worms are very tiny. They are so small, they even lack a mouth and gut. They are red and pink in color. Giant squids are the opposite of zombie worms because they are extremely large. For example, they have two feeding tentacles which can be up to ten meters long, they also have eight arms that are all about half the size of their feeding tentacles. The feeding tentacles have hundreds of strong, toothed suckers and all arms have thousands of the same toothed suckers. The squid also has the largest eyes on earth, it has two eyes that are eleven inches in diameter. They are different colors, for example, at the surface of the ocean they are reddish orange or pink with spots of white and in the deeper parts of the ocean, they are silvery or gold. Yeti crabs are white or very pale yellow. They have hairy legs and chests and they measure almost six inches long. Each of these animals had to adapt to live in the sea and their appearances play a large role in this. For example, zombie worms don’t have a mouth or stomach, but instead they have skin cells that produce acid, the giant squids use their arms to catch prey and feed itself, and the crabs are able to survive in extreme heat and
These animals can’t function in the shallows of the ocean, so they retreat to the depths. The twilight zone is 660 to 3030 feet deep which means, “The only light that reaches where these fish are is a blue greenish color which gets absorbed by plant, so most of the light they give off is red” (Haddock). This scientist is describing the world of color or lack of that these special creatures face. The light in this zone is usually red due to the fact that there is not a lot of light the plants absorb the blue and green and animal life then give off a red light. These creatures use thi...
Killer whales communicate by a series of clicks and whistles called vocalization. Each pod, or family, has their own unique language. This gives whales the ability to identify their own pods. Orcas have a brain that is about five ti...
Killer whales have a recognizable coloration with a black back and white belly. They also have a noticeable o...
The decline of the dinosaurs brought the evolution of a new marine order know as Cetacea. Present day species of whales and dolphins began to emerge 10 million years ago. Of these 86 species that exist today, whales make up the majority of both the Odonotocetes and Mysticetes. These creatures are amongst the largest in the world and display an equally unique way of communicating with one another. Both baleen and toothed whales communicate utilizing sounds yet neither possess an external ear. Sounds are detected through a fatty structure that rests in between the middle ear and the mandible while the sounds given off to communicate vary between species, or in an orca's case, between pods. Mysticetes do not contain any vocal cords but instead have vocal folds that they communicate with and generate some of the most resounding biological sounds known to man. These series of clicks and moans come together as a whale song and is used to communicate anything from possible threats to identification of another whale to mating calls. Odonotocetes communicate a little differently by emitting high-pitched sounds and echoes to navigate themselves and determine the location of objects. Echolocation is imparative and provides a three dimensional view of the world below where only 1% of sunlight travels to 100 meters in depth. Migratory whales communicate through these methods across vast distances like 4,500 kilometers and continue to produce the same sounds between each other. Even when the slight changes between clans occur seasonally, the rest of the members in other breeding grounds follow suit. In 1996, when two individual Humpback whales ventured from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific ocean with their own unique song it was onl...
Marine mammals such as dolphins and fish each have a frequency unique to each species, as well as each organism, in a pod.(Baker, 2013) Scientists have called these “signature whistles” Elsevier, 1989). Organisms use these whistles similar to how we use names, associating the frequency to specific individuals in the pod. Whales have a frequency between 40-80 kilohertz while dolphins at about 3-23 kilohertz. Due to the sound differences, organisms are able to distinguish between organisms of different species and individuals in their pods, or neighboring pods. If individuals of a species are capable of individualising their “signature whistles” are they able to then use those signature whistles to develop ways of hunting fish using each of the individuals in the pod? Scientists have been studying this behavior since the 1960’s, and have just recently discovered a whale who’s whistle sounds like a duck call (Kahn, 2014).
Whales have special adaptations which help them survive in the water. I have already mentioned blubber and bones in their flippers, but there are more. Echolocation is a whale's navigation tool to help them get around in the water, find food, and potential threats. By using echolocation toothed whales can determine many factors about their environment such as how far an object is, how fast it is moving, whether it is above or below them, what direction it is traveling in, how large it is and whether it is a hollow or solid object. It is extremely useful in areas where visibility is low and helps whales avoid colliding with other objects when they are unable to see what is around them. Their lungs are also very important. Their lungs are able to exchange as much as 90% of the oxygen they inhale as compared to an average human's lungs which can only
Have you ever been out on a boat and saw a dolphin and then a squid?Well I have ! and research has shown some very interesting facts about their similarities and differences.If you look they have lots in common but they also have many differences.
Occasionally, a giant squid will wash up on shore or will come up in a fishing net, which has allowed scientists to get a close observation of these squid and their anatomy.
First of all, an octopus is a cellapod. Which means it has a soft body, and no bones. An octopus also has eight arms, large useful eyes, and suction cups. ( Octopuses and Squid, page 6 by: Tori Miller.) All of these traits are mostly used for hunting. Eight arms come in handy when your prey is fast and can get away easily, large eyes are useful when you need to see in the dark or the depths of the ocean, and suction cups are used when they need to grab hold of something.( Octopuses Squid, page 14.) ( National Geographic, Octopus Facts.) Octopuses have blue blood caused by copper and bag like bodies. When born they're 1/4 of an inch and don't rely on...